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The leading provider of global news, comment and analysis for the telecommunications industryFri, 09 Dec 2016 12:56:07 +0000en-GBhourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.15G partnership of the day – Huawei and BThttp://telecoms.com/478141/5g-partnership-of-the-day-huawei-and-bt/
http://telecoms.com/478141/5g-partnership-of-the-day-huawei-and-bt/#commentsThu, 08 Dec 2016 10:51:48 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=478141BT and Huawei continue their Anglo-Chinese bromance with a romantic new 5G partnership.

The two companies have a long history of working together but 5G seems to have given them the opportunity to publicly renew their vows. The partnership itself seems to be a pretty standard affair, with the usual lofty but ill-defined ambition to ‘lead the global development of 5G mobile technologies’.

Such specifics as there are concern the technical and commercial feasibility of deploying 5G technologies, as well as a buzzword check-list including New Radio, network slicing and IoT. Much of this 5G collaborative goodness will take place at the BT labs in Ipswich, and both companies were keen to celebrate the special moment with generic canned quotes.

“We are determined to maximise the potential of 5G for our customers, so collaborative research has a key role to play as the technology develops,” said BT CEO Gavin Patterson. “This partnership with Huawei will see us explore the potential uses and make sure 5G is designed to meet the needs of our consumer and business customers throughout the world.”

“We are very proud of our work with BT over the last eleven years,” said rotating Huawei CEO Ken Hu. “We have conducted joint research and development activities which have led to new products and solutions and with 5G we look forward to continuing this fruitful partnership. Together we can explore the potential of 5G networks and analyze how this vital technology can best be delivered.”

The two companies joined forces to make beautiful optical music earlier this year and, with certain regions such as the US denied to Huawei, the company is presumably keen to cement its relationship with the UK’s dominant fixed and mobile operator.

]]>http://telecoms.com/478141/5g-partnership-of-the-day-huawei-and-bt/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/12/BT-research-building.jpgHuawei goes all-in on the cloudhttp://telecoms.com/477806/huawei-goes-all-in-on-the-cloud/
http://telecoms.com/477806/huawei-goes-all-in-on-the-cloud/#commentsFri, 25 Nov 2016 12:56:48 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=477806Huawei has announced three new products which it claims will help customers move towards the ‘full cloudification of wireless networks’.

The company calls this solution ERA and brings three new solutions to the market; CloudEdge for cloud-based core networks, CloudRAN for cloud-based radio access networks and CloudAIR for cloud-based air interface. Making the announcement at the 2016 Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF) in Tokyo the team are hoping to capitalize on the continued development of mobile broadband and growth of digital applications.

“This diversity of applications will raise the bar for network capabilities and operations,” said Edward Deng, President of Huawei Wireless Solutions team. “In order to face this challenge, a modern network needs efficient resource utilization, on-demand module deployment, and agile service provisioning if it hopes to achieve long-term development. And building a cloud-based network is the only way to make that happen.”

The team are backing industry moves towards ‘All cloud’ mobile networks as it evolves it cloud focus in line with overarching trends. CloudEdge was actually launched back in 2014, with the team claiming it has been deployed in over ten commercial sites and has obtained over 60 commercial contracts, and CloudRAN is expected to be commercially deployed in Q3 of 2017. CloudAIR is the new one here which Deng claims uses advanced scheduling to allow different RATs (Radio Access Technologies) to share the same spectrum within a carrier band.

“Air interface is the most valuable resource that operators have. And if this most valuable resource doesn’t support efficient, on-demand, and agile network deployment, then a mobile network isn’t truly cloud-based,” said Deng. “Today we launched the CloudAIR solution to help reshape air interface. Our focus is on improving the efficiency of air interface, enabling operators to deploy services more flexibly and, of course, enhancing user experience. CloudAIR is designed to enable more efficient sharing of air interface resources like spectrum, power, and channels.”

Details on how the technology works were relatively slim, though Huawei said spectrum cloudification allows different RATs to share the same spectrum, dynamically allocating spectrum resources based on fluctuations in traffic.

“By enabling more efficient sharing and allocation of resources, spectrum cloudification creates real value for telecom customers,” said Deng. “It’s an important development trend in the industry, and it will take greater collaboration with industry partners to continue pushing things forward.”

]]>http://telecoms.com/477806/huawei-goes-all-in-on-the-cloud/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/Huawei-cloud-announcement.jpg5G and LTE need to learn to share – Huaweihttp://telecoms.com/477732/5g-and-lte-need-to-learn-to-share-huawei/
http://telecoms.com/477732/5g-and-lte-need-to-learn-to-share-huawei/#commentsThu, 24 Nov 2016 12:48:27 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=477732Huawei reckons the early success of 5G lays with successfully interoperating new radio infrastructure with existing LTE.

Running live demos at its Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF) in Japan this week, Huawei said it was able to run a 5G/LTE dual connectivity trial leaning on a cloud-based RAN system, achieving peak single-user speeds of a frankly ridiculous 21.1 Gbps

Extending the principle into the real-world, Huawei reckons early deployments of 5G into central hotspots in major urban areas will be well met by the continuing evolution of LTE which, given what the acronym stands for, kind of makes sense. Things like 3D Massive MIMO and continuing degrees of Carrier Aggregation are really pushing today’s possibilities with LTE.

It is now such a broadly deployed technology that the vast majority of mature telecoms markets will be able to feasibly use it as a base for 5G to build upon in densely populated urban areas. With that in mind, Huawei says the optimal conditions for early 5G using what it calls ‘new radio’ will be in connectivity hotspots, Central London for instance. The overwhelming capacity and latency potential of 5G can begin by serving the most densely covered and populated areas, supplemented with LTE, before slowly expanding outwards.

“It is of vital importance to guarantee end users with a ubiquitous high data rate experience in densely populated urban city areas with high buildings and complex roadways,” said Yuefeng Zhou, CMO of Huawei’s wireless networks product line. “Recently, 3GPP standardization has made significant progress in 5G and LTE Dual Connectivity. We expect to strengthen our cooperation with industry partners on 5G innovations based on these real application scenarios.”

Meanwhile, the Chinese kit vendor has been working developing a network slicing proposition alongside China Telecom. Network slicing essentially means creating scalable and agile network instances solely responsible for providing the required network resources for a specific function, task or service. Done so virtually, the practise is intended to increase the dynamism of next gen networks so that resources aren’t being needlessly sapped up.

Jeff Wang, President of Huawei’s access networks product line summed up the supposed benefits pretty neatly.

“With this function, multiple services can be independently carried, operated, maintained, and managed on one network, helping operators improve device utilization, lower the O&M cost, and achieve business successes.”

]]>http://telecoms.com/477732/5g-and-lte-need-to-learn-to-share-huawei/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/Sharing-Share-Network-Interoperability.jpgTelefónica and Huawei unveil ‘user centric, no cell’ 5G proof of concepthttp://telecoms.com/477537/telefonica-and-huawei-unveil-user-centric-no-cell-5g-proof-of-concept/
http://telecoms.com/477537/telefonica-and-huawei-unveil-user-centric-no-cell-5g-proof-of-concept/#commentsThu, 17 Nov 2016 12:27:49 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=477537Telefónica and Huawei are hyping a novel 5G RAN architecture that claims to end the fixed cell paradigm and disruption associated with cell handover, but at this stage it remains pretty abstract.

The cunning bit is something to do with associating certain base stations with certain devices and then using Hyper-Cell network architecture to coordinate all this. Thus the device dictates which base stations it uses, not the other way around, thus supposedly eliminating the current cell centric approach. The companies announced the commencement of this work earlier in the year.

To be honest user centric, no cell (UCNC) isn’t an easy concept to get your head around, especially since devices are still going to have to hand over between base stations, presumably. New Radio trends like beamforming are already moving 5G in a device-centric in so much as they use focused, targeted radio transmissions, rather than the current broadcast model.

Here’s the explanation of the concept from the press release, which if nothing else illustrates how elusive it is: UCNC is a novel radio access framework evolved from the classical cell-centric access protocol to a user-centric protocol with hyper-cell abstraction. UCNC can dramatically reduce the over-the-air protocol signaling overhead and the access protocol latency, as well as increase the number of air-interface connection links.

UCNC also defines the “ECO State” as a new device protocol state for sending short packets directly without the need of over-the-air signaling, thus making users be truly “always connected”. Another key technology is “SCMA-based Grant Free Access”, which can simplify uplink access procedures so as to reduce latency and increase the number of connected devices. According to the results of PoC tests conducted at Telefonica-Huawei 5G joint lab, the number of 5G connections per cell increased by 233%, the signaling overhead decreased by 78%, and the latency decreased by 95% compared with state-of the-art LTE. Telefonica and Huawei will continue with the next phase PoC test with the target to enhance the cell edge spectral efficiency, in order to avoid end-user experience degradation at the cell edges and any service interruption across the network.

Clear enough? Here’s Enrique Blanco, Telefónica Global CTO: “Telefónica collaboration with Huawei on 5G has allowed us to reach disruptive results like the use of User Centric No Cell eliminating handover between cells and reducing interference, which is a significant step towards making 5G a really differential mobile system.

Dr. Tong Wen, Huawei Wireless CTO, who is having a busy week, echoed the sentiment. “We are pleased with our 5G collaboration with Telefónica,” he said. “Our joint achievement on the Proof-of-Concept UCNC for NR RAN and trials for the fiber-like mmWave technology will pave the way from 5G innovation to commercial reality. The novel RAN architecture concept based on the cloud technology will lay the foundation for the future 5G services and applications.”

This does seem like a big deal in the context of 5G New Radio and the general move to the cloud, but neither company indicated next steps or timescales for the funky new tech. They might want to start with finding a simpler way to explain it.

]]>http://telecoms.com/477537/telefonica-and-huawei-unveil-user-centric-no-cell-5g-proof-of-concept/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/5G-Joint-Innovation-Lab-Ignacio-Berberana-Juan-Carlos.jpgHuawei claims first 4.5 GHz large scale 5G field trialhttp://telecoms.com/477482/huawei-claims-first-4-5-ghz-large-scale-5g-field-trial/
http://telecoms.com/477482/huawei-claims-first-4-5-ghz-large-scale-5g-field-trial/#commentsWed, 16 Nov 2016 11:34:41 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=477482Such is the appetite for 5G ‘firsts’ that each new announcement is becoming ever more nuanced.

Huawei’s latest effort is qualified by both spectrum and scale, but does seem to have some validity in terms of raising the 5G bar, a bit.

In Yokohama, Japan Huawei and NTT Docomo set up a ‘5G base station’ and conducted a trial using technology compliant with the current 3GPP New Radio standard agreements. It used 200 MHz of spectrum in the 455 GHz band via 64 transceivers to serve 23 separate pieces of user equipment (UE), both static and mobile. At total of 11.29 Gbps of throughput (around 1 Gbps per UE) was claimed with a latency of 0.5 milliseconds.

“Huawei is now putting a lot of resource and energy to 5G NR foundational technology development, market development and product solution development,” said Dr. Wen Tong, CTO of Huawei Wireless Networks. “With the expert team we put together, the collaboration between Huawei and Docomo is now on the fast track and the progress is very encouraging, this achievement is extremely important to form the foundation of future 5G.”

“Our success in 5G large-scale field trial in the 4.5 GHz band brought the whole industry one step closer to 5G commercialization by 2020,” said Takehiro Nakamura, VP and MD of NTT Docomo’s 5G Laboratory. “Docomo and Huawei have been expanding their collaboration on 5G from R&D to international spectrum harmonization initiatives for 5G since December 2014.”

It has been a busy day for Huawei’s PR department. As well as contributing to the keynotes at AfricaCom 2016, Huawei has launched a new high performance computing platform, a product that allows GSM and UMTS to be deployed over just 5 MHz of bandwidth and has claimed the electrical smart meter to nun on NB-IoT while unveiling a new smart city strategy. Nice to see it’s not just Ericsson and Nokia that like to send their press releases in bunches.

]]>http://telecoms.com/477482/huawei-claims-first-4-5-ghz-large-scale-5g-field-trial/feed/1http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/11/Huawei-Docomo-5G-trial.jpgHuawei smartphones said to be running rampant in EMEAhttp://telecoms.com/477176/huawei-smartphones-said-to-be-running-rampant-in-emea/
http://telecoms.com/477176/huawei-smartphones-said-to-be-running-rampant-in-emea/#commentsTue, 08 Nov 2016 13:02:30 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=477176Research firm Canalys has made another confident statement claiming Huawei has increased its Q3 smartphone shipments by 70% year-on-year to 10 million in EMEA alone.

The team are seemingly not against making bold claims following last week’s estimates which put the smartwatch segment on a fast and furious rise through Q3, when the rest of us had assumed it was stagnating. We are a bunch of silly sausages. The latest research puts Huawei in third position in the EMEA smartphone market with a market share of 14%.

“Huawei is becoming much smarter in Europe,” said Ben Stanton, Research Analyst at Canalys. “It used to focus on price-to-performance ratio. This was a good disruptive strategy at the time, which helped it exploit falling operator subsidies, and the shift toward open-market channels such as e-commerce. But it has now evolved to become a major smart phone brand and innovator in its own right.”

Huawei has been making positive strides in the smartphone arena worldwide, and it would come as little surprise to most the team are eating up market share, but the numbers are not quite adding up for Telecoms.com.

Let’s look at analysis from a couple of other research houses (scroll down to the bottom of the article for the tables).

When looking more specifically at the Chinese market, Strategy Analytics estimate Huawei accounts for 14.9% of smartphone sales across Q3, roughly 18 million units. IDC estimates put Huawei sales at 19.1 million for the second quarter of 2016. Consistent, but not the same period, though as the figures for Q3 are not available yet you’ll have to give us some creative license.

Adding together the figures from EMEA and China, and subtracting that figure from worldwide sales leaves in the region of 3-5 million units. Still a substantial figure, though this is an amount which is supposed to cover North America, South America and the rest of Asia-Pacific minus China. That’s just under 4 billion people.

Now we’re not saying anyone is making stuff up, just seems a bit unusual. Huawei is growing strongly in the EMEA market, but it is also doing quite well throughout Asia as well. 3-5 million units seems to be quite a low number.

Canalys EMEA Smartphone Tracker – Q3

IDC Worldwide Smartphone Tracker – Q3

IDC China Smartphone Tracker – Q2

Strategy Analytics Global Smartphone Tracker – Q3

Strategy Analytics China Smartphone Tracker – Q3

]]>http://telecoms.com/477176/huawei-smartphones-said-to-be-running-rampant-in-emea/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/09/Huawei-Mate-S_Flat.jpgEmbrace video or lose customers – Huaweihttp://telecoms.com/476563/embrace-video-or-lose-customers-huawei/
http://telecoms.com/476563/embrace-video-or-lose-customers-huawei/#commentsTue, 18 Oct 2016 09:49:11 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=476563The intelligent world is here, and telcos need to be ready for it. That’s the message from Huawei during the opening keynote at Broadband World Forum in London this morning.

During his session, XiPeng Xiao from the CTIO office of Huawei Western Europe said future products, services and consumer attitudes aren’t necessarily being saved for whenever the future arrives. XiPeng says the future is already here, and it is changing both B2B and B2C network requirements, starting with how IoT is impacting society and, specifically, telcos.

“The network isn’t just connecting people but it’s now connecting things,” he said. “When things are connected by the internet we are becoming smarter and better informed. The Internet is making people smarter, and similarly will make things smarter and the whole world smarter.

“Previously, phones were not smart, now they. Cars could not drive themselves, but now they can. The world is becoming intelligent, and all of these things are made possible by the ultra-broadband network.”

XiPeng identified three first steps operators need to take to begin the journey of a thousand network upgrades, which presumably happily coincide with three of Huawei’s main three product lines.

“First, we believe video will become a basic service. Secondly, in the B2B world we believe cloud will be the default, and thirdly in the verticals operators will move into new businesses and spaces – such as utilities and automotive – so we will need IoT as the entry point.”

Finally, there was a nice bit of fear-mongering as XiPeng literally said operators in attendance will lose customers if they don’t embrace video.

“In the past operators have treated video as a value added service – you have voice and data as a basic, but for IPTV etc you need to invest $200m, which if the investment is not justified it will be treated as a VAS,” he said. “Video will soon be treated as a part of the broadband package and will be used to attract new customers.

“At Huawei we believe you have no choice but to treat video as part of the basic service, or you will lose subscribers.”

]]>http://telecoms.com/476563/embrace-video-or-lose-customers-huawei/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/Huawei-MWC-2016-e1459504634734.jpg5G connected car clique lets Vodafone join its ganghttp://telecoms.com/476487/5g-connected-car-clique-lets-vodafone-join-its-gang/
http://telecoms.com/476487/5g-connected-car-clique-lets-vodafone-join-its-gang/#commentsFri, 14 Oct 2016 11:10:56 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=476487After a bunch of important companies formed their own gang to work on making cars cleverer, Vodafone has infiltrated the ranks.

Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, Intel, and Qualcomm created the 5G car club clique (AKA 5G Automotive Association) a couple of weeks ago, but someone forgot to put telcos on the invite list. That’s particularly funny, given it’ll be the telcos that actually deploy 5G – bit of an oversight that.

So they took down the ‘no telcos allowed’ sign from the club house and opened the door for Vodafone to come skipping in. The telco says it’s bringing something extra to the gang, given it has already started testing cellular vehicle to everything connectivity – ‘C-V2X’. It also reckons it is the world leader **shudder** in IoT connectivity because it provides more connected car services for more models from more manufacturers in more countries than any other company. Bit of a brag, that.

On top of this Vodafone also found the time to hold hands with Huawei over a lot of messing around with high and low frequency bands for dense urban city scenarios – claiming that to be in aid of 5G advancements. In keeping with any announcement of partnerships or trials and all that jazz, Huawei made a lot of claims about “firsts” and records and stuff like that.

“The communication between vehicles, infrastructure and pedestrians using C-V2X will be fundamental to the creation of intelligent transport systems,” said Vodafone’s Group head of R&D and tech strategy, Luke Ibbetson. “The technology that the 5GAA develops can lead to major improvements in driving and road safety.”

Huawei did, to be fair, claim some pretty hefty performance results from the field test, which used lots of technology cleverness like multi-user MIMO, Sparse Coding Multiple Access and Filtered-OFDM. Obviously you’d use MU-MIMO, SCMA and F-OFDM in a 5G trial, who wouldn’t? Anyway, Huawei says the trial managed a peak cell throughput of 18 Gbps under 200 MHz bandwidth in the sub-6 GHz band, while also achieving sub-millisecond latency.

The first rule of car club is, presumably, to talk incessantly about car club. The three German car companies that bought HERE from Nokia have got together with the three big kit vendors and the two biggest chip vendors to push the connected car industry as we move towards the 5G era.

Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, Intel, and Qualcomm have reasoned that 5G will be the moment of truth for the connected car. The lower latency will enable things like remote control, instant emergency support and realtime services such as contextual navigation. The group seems keen on the term C-V2X, which stands for cellular vehicle-to-everything and seems like a needlessly convoluted way of saying connected car.

As is so often the way when these consortia are unveiled, the rest of the announcement is heavy on buzzwords and lofty aspiration but light on specifics. Here are some of those aspirations:

Defining and harmonizing use cases, technical requirements and implementation strategies.

Running joint innovation and development projects leading to integrated solutions, interoperability testing, large scale pilots and trial deployments.

Needless to say everyone provided a canned quote, here are the least generic of them:

Sajjad Khan, Director Digital Vehicle & Mobility, Daimler

“The connected car enables us to offer our customers services, both inside and outside the vehicle, which make their daily routine tasks easier, increase comfort and safety and thus create considerable added value. The fundamental basis for this is a reliable and fast connectivity technology whose standards have global validity. Together with the other founding members of the 5G Automotive Association, we as Daimler AG are working on precisely that – with the aim of raising car connectivity as well to a new level with the advent of the next generation of mobile phone technology.”

Ulf Ewaldsson, CTO, Ericsson
“The success of 5G is dependent on cross-industry work in new eco systems to digitalize industries. With the creation of this Association we will leverage our latest technology, 5G, and work closely together with the car industry to jointly develop solutions as well as provide input to regulation, certification and standardization. We are excited to be co-founder and to work with leading automotive companies shaping the connected car solutions for the future.”

Doug Davis, GM of the IoT Group, Intel
“Intel’s leadership work in 5G technology development, long–term commitment to open standards, and collaboration with leaders in the automotive industry will drive an accelerated path to adoption of 5G in automotive and transportation. Partnering together with other industry leaders will ensure 5G can support the use cases that will deliver on breakthroughs in safety and services for automated driving, smart city and intelligent transportation solutions around the world.”

That’s it really. The announcement seems timed to coincide with the Paris motor show, which starts in a few days and at which there is likely to be a fair bit of connected car action. Yesterday Here, the navigation company spun out from Nokia’s massive Navteq acquisition and bought by Audi, BMW and Daimler last year, announced ‘next generation vehicle-sourced data services’, which seems to mean big data for cars.

In practice this will mean loads of sensors generating loads of data which is then processed by loads of processors to generate loads of decisions. A sort of miniature version of the IoT vision. All this cleverness will allow drivers, or perhaps the cars themselves, to make smarter decisions on things like traffic conditions, potential road hazards, traffic signage and on-street parking. The ultimate stated aim of Here is for as many car makers as possible to use it and thus generate a definitive flow of realtime data. Google might have something to say about that.

“What we are seeing today is the technology and automotive industries coming together to create services that will elevate the driving experience for billions,” said Here CEO Edzard Overbeek. “This is also an important milestone for our Open Location Platform, which is ready to serve as the nerve center for future autonomous vehicles, smart cities and intelligent transportation systems.”

It’s hard to argue with the conclusion that a major feature of the 5G/IoT era will be these smart/connected/autonomous cars. Car makers are desperate to differentiate through technology but the promised marriage between phones and cars has been a long time coming. It remains to be seen just how much real value having all these connected sensors will add to the driving experience but what is undeniable is that momentum is building. The second rule of car club is to bang on about it constantly, as we’re about find out.

]]>http://telecoms.com/475854/car-network-and-chip-giants-form-5g-car-club/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/09/audi-connected-cars.jpgMobile phone market to stagnate for five yearshttp://telecoms.com/475827/mobile-phone-market-to-stagnate-for-five-years/
http://telecoms.com/475827/mobile-phone-market-to-stagnate-for-five-years/#commentsMon, 26 Sep 2016 12:04:54 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=475827Research from CCS Insight has forecast a glass ceiling for mobile phone growth capping the market at two billion units a year for the next five years.

Although the smartphone segment is expected to grow its proportion of sales over the period, the total number of mobile phone shipments will remain consistent at two billion. The doom and gloom forecast has been a favourite topic of analysts for some time now, so this prediction shouldn’t come as a shock and not many tears are likely to be shed in the broader industry if the multi-billion dollar profit margins of the likes of Apple are eroded slightly.

Alongside stagnated sales, rising component prices may also play a role in the misery of smartphone manufacturers, though this is more likely to impact the smaller players. CCS expects component prices to be hiked in the second half of the year due to shortages of screens, camera modules and memory. The blame here lies with larger players greedily gobbling up available output, while recent earthquakes in Taiwan that have disrupted production.

“This is the first time we have seen component price rises for years,” said Marina Koytcheva, Director of Forecasting at CCS Insight. “Phone makers with low volumes will find it almost impossible to turn a profit in these conditions without raising the prices of their products.”

In a time where product innovation is a scarcity, increasing the prices of individual units may not be a popular move. The unfavourable market conditions may play into the hands of the larger players such as Samsung and Huawei, whose significant market share and distribution channels may help maintain lower prices and squeeze the smaller players out of the picture.

The question of how to innovate in the mobile phone market is one which has been asked for a number of years, and it looks like competition will be driven by pricing strategies for the near future. While the whole market may be screwed for the next few years, the smaller players seem likely to get the worst of it.

]]>http://telecoms.com/475827/mobile-phone-market-to-stagnate-for-five-years/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/01/pile-of-smartphones.jpgOpenreach pulls a G.fast one with Huawei and Nokiahttp://telecoms.com/475763/openreach-pulls-a-g-fast-one-with-huawei-and-nokia/
http://telecoms.com/475763/openreach-pulls-a-g-fast-one-with-huawei-and-nokia/#commentsThu, 22 Sep 2016 15:37:49 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=475763UK fixed-line alpha BT has announced it will be buying a bunch of shiny G.fast kit from Huawei and Nokia to help with its ‘ultrafast’ broadband rollout.

The plan is to bring G.fast copper-on-steroids connectivity, and with it speeds of up to 330 Mbps, to 10 million premises by the end of 2020. The first places to get this broadband boost will be parts of Gillingham and Cherry Hinton later this year.

“Openreach is pioneering G.fast technology because we want to get affordable ultrafast speeds to as many people as possible in the fastest possible time,” said Openreach CEO Clive Selley, apparently keen to extol the benefits of G.fast as opposed to fibre. “We also want to deliver this next generation of broadband services in the most efficient and least disruptive way – so it is a testament to our world leading R&D team that they’ve managed to define and drive new standards with operators and equipment manufacturers around the globe.”

Huawei and Nokia were pleased, excited, etc. Adtran, presumably, was neither, while fixed-line isn’t what Ericsson is best known for. Click here for more Light Reading on this.

In other BT news the company also announced it has joined forces with Microsoft to flog Azure through its Compute Management System. This swill simplify hybrid cloud, apparently.

Nokia especially likes to release its missives in clusters and has managed no less than 13 since the start of last week. Spare a thought for Nokia’s PR department, which must have been subsisting entirely on coffee, energy bars and adrenaline over that time. Telecoms.com covered one or two of them and, inevitably, 5G featured strongly.

Most recently Nokia talked up a joint effort with T-Mobile US to test pre-5G goodness using the Nokia AirScale platform over TMUS’s 28 GHz spectrum. The headline claimed achievements from this latest incremental step was throughput of several (unspecified) Gbps, latency of 1.8 milliseconds and the gratuitous streaming of four 4K videos at the same time. That’s some hardcore 5G action right there.

Not to be out-done Huawei proudly unveiled what is claims is the first 5G-oriented Mobile Edge Computing solution and called it MEC@CloudEdge. A key feature of MEC is bringing the cloud physically closer to base stations, which should help with key 5G goodness such as low-latency, IoT support, etc, as well as handy things like localised content. Inevitably Nokia also had an announcement about this sort of thing, which you can read more about on Light Reading.

Huawei’s great Chinese rival ZTE was not about to take all this crowing and posturing lying down and has whacked out a couple of 5G announcements this week alone. Its Massive MIMO 2.0 solution is, of course, pre-5G – a term already becoming so ubiquitous as to be implicit and thus pretty much redundant. The big deal with this version is spectral efficiency, with good old 16-stream spacial division multiplexing doing the trick nicely. To support all this ZTE is boldly laying claim to the first access-layer 100G packet transport product and given it the unforgettable name: ZXCTN 6180H.

Korea is pretty keen to be the front-runner in the 5G marathon, so recently SK Telecom and Samsung got together to field-test handover between 5G (not even ‘pre’ this time!) base stations using 28 GHz spectrum in an outdoor environment, building on similar 5G larks a year ago. LR was once more all over this story.

Qualcomm, by contrast, seems to have been pacing itself in the 5G race, perhaps waiting until the big kit vendors completely exhaust their PR teams before making its move. The chip giant did pick up the pace this week, however, inviting us to hear all about how Qualcomm is modestly ‘leading the world to 5G’. While the presentation had the potential to be Death By Powerpoint it was, to be fair, a useful and informative look at where we are now with 5G and how things are likely to play out over the next few years.

Our host was Qualcomm Biz Dev director Ben Timmons who, he reminded us, has been doing this since 1G. With that perspective he reckons 5G is more coherent and developed at this stage than any previous G. One of the reasons is that everyone seems to agree what the point of it is, other than to give telecoms marketing departments something to obsess about, as we observed at 5G World earlier this year and as shown by the slide below.

One of the biggest differences this time is the use of spectrum. Any frequencies much higher than 3GHz had previously been disregarded due to their rubbish propagation properties – i.e. range and building penetration. While one way of overcoming this is by using loads of small cells as signal boosters, the aforementioned massive MIMO is going to use loads of antennae to allow transmissions to be much more targeted and thus effective.

In terms of timings, Timmons reckons we could see the first 5G devices, which are likely to be smartphones, as early as 2019, depending on how the standardisation process plays out. The initial emphasis is likely to be on headline-grabbing 1 Gbps wireless data rates with all the other stuff like IoT support and mission-critical capabilities, which Timmons thinks might end up being the most important feature of all, appearing when they’re good and ready.

As Timmons observed it’s easy to take the piss out of all this 5G mania, and we intend to keep doing so. But underneath all the spam and hyperbole is a degree of industry transparency and excitement that can only be positive. The implications of 5G will extend far beyond mobile phones and could catalyse a global economic boom, so that’s worth getting a bit worked up about, just not necessarily every day.

]]>http://telecoms.com/475678/incremental-5g-progress-announcements-reach-new-levels-of-mania/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/12/5G-2-e1450953934722.jpgHuawei’s Not-So-Smart City strategyhttp://telecoms.com/475637/huaweis-not-so-smart-city-strategy/
http://telecoms.com/475637/huaweis-not-so-smart-city-strategy/#commentsMon, 19 Sep 2016 16:17:37 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=475637Huawei unveiled its Smart City strategy at a recent event in China, but several major omissions revealed it needs to get a lot smarter yet.

The concept of the smart city is one of the main driving forces behind the development and implementation of the Internet of Things, as central and local governments seek new means to cut costs. Research firm Markets and Markets estimate the smart city segment to be worth $757.74 billion by 2020 with energy consumption, transportation and healthcare notable areas of excitement.

This drive has not gone unnoticed by the technology giants of the world with major player’s cosying up to decision makers in the public sector, seemingly playing the long-game to sniff out big public sector contracts. Huawei is no exception to this rule, and already have a number of pilot schemes to demonstrate the effectiveness of its solutions. On the surface, Huawei is taking a very considered approach to the implementation of the technologies as Jo So, CTO of industry solutions in the Enterprise Business Group offered an in-depth briefing on the strategy, but under scrutiny from several sceptical UK journalists, cracks began to appear.

Firstly, one of the more veteran members of the UK party examined Huawei’s approach to the implementation of smart cities, questioning whether the top-down approach was sensible. All examples of smart city implementation given by the team were led from the top-down. Whether this would be greater energy efficiency technologies in government buildings or traffic lights which automatically switch off at a certain time in the evening, the smart city implementation is geared towards improvements in management not towards benefiting the citizens directly.

A successful implementation of a smart city solution is one which is done in conjunction with support from the citizens themselves. It requires the consent of the general public, mainly due to the vast amount of capital which is required to get such a proposition off the ground. Over the last few years, we have seen a huge number of successful programmes launched around the world, including a proactive healthcare project in Leeds, as well as a smart energy grid programme in the City of Groningen; both of these projects were led from the bottom-up through consultation with the general public, but perhaps more importantly, offering direct benefits to the citizens themselves. Through demonstrating the value of a smart city solution to the citizens, both these authorities were granted greater freedom to undertake future opportunities.

This would not appear to be the viewpoint of the Huawei team as such an idea was shot down. A couple of journalists Telecoms.com spoke to at the event came to the same conclusion; the solutions which companies like Huawei is providing are what administrators believe the town or city needs, but not what the citizens want. Huawei believes the administrators have the “people’s livelihoods” at heart, though there was little evidence to support this during the presentation. Without the support of the public, such capital-heavy projects are unlikely to continue indefinitely.

The second crack which appeared was brought about from a question from Telecoms.com which focused on the development and implementation of standards. We asked whether Huawei was concerned a lack of standardization of the smart city, data protection, big data and artificial intelligence (etc.) would slow down or even prevent the implementation. The answer was simple; of course it won’t.

While Huawei is not entirely to blame for the lack of standardization, regulations and over-arching policy concerning the implementation of smart city solutions (the team did in fact point out it contributes to the development of such standards) it does demonstrate a glaring oversight in the overall Huawei smart city strategy. The assumption a lack of standards will not slow down implementation is one which may be incorrect.

For the most part, public sector organizations are risk adverse. Yes, there are test sites and pilot projects around the world to demonstrate the viability of a smart city, though this is a long-way from mass market adoption. Decision makers in both local and central governments are generally elected officials in western societies; they are subject to the scrutiny of the citizens of the town or city. Any decisions which are made will be supported and criticized. Spending millions on projects which are not underpinned by standards or regulations is unlikely to be a popular decision. This point does not seem to have been received by the Huawei team.

This is not to say Huawei has not been successful to date. The projects which were outlined to the room were sound. They demonstrated strong ROI and achieved the outlined objectives, though any failed projects were unlikely to be shown to journalists at Huawei’s flagship event. But the point remains; Huawei hasn’t seemed to grasp the complexities of the smart city segment, which would be seen as a luxury in the eyes of the general public for the moment. For Telecoms.com, the Huawei smart city strategy doesn’t tick all the boxes.

]]>http://telecoms.com/475637/huaweis-not-so-smart-city-strategy/feed/1http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/09/Huawei-Smart-City.jpgThe smartwatch market has already peaked and the outlook is bleakhttp://telecoms.com/475559/the-smartwatch-market-has-already-peaked-and-the-outlook-is-bleak/
http://telecoms.com/475559/the-smartwatch-market-has-already-peaked-and-the-outlook-is-bleak/#commentsThu, 15 Sep 2016 15:58:23 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=475559What’s the point of a smartwatch? That’s the question the device industry has totally failed to adequately answer, which is why sales and new launches have stalled.

Gadget site cnet reports that LG, Huawei can’t be bothered to launch new smartwatches ahead of the crucial holiday season because they just can’t see the point. Elsewhere market leaders Apple and Samsung are so embarrassed about their inability to do anything profound with the category that they mentioned their latest efforts as afterthoughts at the end of smartphone launch events.

As soon as smartphone sales started to slow down a few years ago the devices industry was desperate for a new category to take its place. Tablets did the job for a bit, but replacement cycles are far longer for them so that didn’t last long. Hopes soon turned to wearables, which had been steadily growing in the form of fitness bands and health monitors but looked set to explode once the big players got involved in smartwatches.

Samsung launched its first smartwatch back in 2013, but had to give them away with smartphones to shift any inventory. Apple got involved a couple of years later but failed to make a compelling case for shelling out a few hundred quid for a glorified wrist-mounted pager. Both companies recently refreshed their smartwatch offerings but aside from upgraded components it was more of the same.

The challenge is intrinsic to the category: what is the point of the smartwatch? Without a modem it’s a smartphone accessory that mainly serves to reproduce s small amount of your smartphone functionality onto your wrist via a tiny screen. It essentially solves the massive first-world-problem of having to put your hand in your pocket to use your smartphone and there’s only so much people are willing to pay for that.

Stick a modem into one and you’ve got a tiny, wrist-mounted smartphone. The best of both worlds, smartwatch product managers would no doubt argue; all the fun of a smartphone without all that pocket hassle. In reality you have a screen that’s far too small to either engage with or consume content through, while compelling the user to undergo humiliating contortions in order to make a phone call.

Apple tried the fashion angle with its first smartwatch but went big on health and fitness with the sequel. This is probably correct and represents the one area wearables offer unique value, but with the Apple Watch 2 starting at £369 and going up into the thousands, that’s a lot to pay just to know how many steps you took today.

IDC has just announced its smartwatch forecast for the year and reckons total global shipments will only grow by 3.9%. Even that is an improvement on the numbers it shared a quarter ago, which showed a 32% decline thanks to a massive slowdown in Apple Watch shipments. For IDC’s forecast to be proved accurate Apple will have to see a greater lift from the new version than its new features deserve. Furthermore, IDC is optimistic things will pick up over the next few years.

“To date, smartwatches have remained in the realm of brand loyalists and tech cognoscenti, but we expect that to change over the next few years,” said IDC’s Ramon Llamas. “First, smartwatches will look and feel like traditional watches, appealing to those who put a premium and design and style. Second, once the smartwatches get cellular connectivity, they’ll disconnect from the smartphone, making them more useful. Third, smartwatch applications will build on this cellular connection, and connect with other devices within the home and at work. Finally, smartwatch prices will come down, making them more affordable to a broader market.”

Neil Mawston of Strategy Analytics was less bullish when approached by Telecoms.com. “It is clear the smartwatch industry needs a rethink. The smartwatch industry is not so smart as it thinks it is. Smartwatch manufacturers need slicker designs to wow consumers, lower prices to attract the mass-market, better apps to drive usage, and deeper distribution channels at operators, e-tailers and watch retailers to showcase their enhanced models.”

He does point out, however, that Rome wasn’t built in a day. “It is not unusual for first-generation products to struggle,” said Mawston. “Smartphones, for example, took the best part of a decade to take off from their initial launches in the 1990s. The first pen-tablets in the early-2000s sank without trace, before rising again in the 2010s.

“Smartwatches have grown from under 1% share of the global wristwatch market in 2014 to over 2% in 2016. Apple has risen from nowhere to become the world’s 2nd largest wristwatch vendor by revenue in less than a year. Apple alone will generate at least US$4 billion of revenue from smartwatches this year, up from nothing two years ago. Smartwatches continue to nibble away at the traditional watch market. Rolex, Fossil and others remain worried about Apple and Samsung.”

Recommendations to improve functionality and design are, of course, laudable, but probably won’t be enough. The total available market of people willing to drop hundreds of pounds on a watch is relatively small and there is still a lot of classic appeal in the trusty old mechanical ones. Until the industry comes out with a killer use-case – and that might never happen – it will probably take a price point in double figures to kick-start shipment growth again.

]]>http://telecoms.com/475559/the-smartwatch-market-has-already-peaked-and-the-outlook-is-bleak/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/09/Apple-watch-hermes.jpgDT and Huawei smash 5G barrier with 1.2 Gbps LTE demohttp://telecoms.com/475481/dt-and-huawei-smash-5g-barrier-with-1-2-gbps-lte-demo/
http://telecoms.com/475481/dt-and-huawei-smash-5g-barrier-with-1-2-gbps-lte-demo/#commentsTue, 13 Sep 2016 11:21:59 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=475481Huawei and German giant Deutsche Telekom have taken a step back from the 5G hype by pumping out speeds of a whopping 1.2 Gbps in an LTE demo.

The Berlin-based demo was a pure speeds’n’feeds play, and achieved some eye-watering data rates using 4×4 MIMO and five carrier aggregation, the first this correspondent has seen. The trial was done “in the wild”, according to DT, and meant the usual catch of “under lab conditions” can well and truly take a back seat.

To be fair 1.2 Gbps is an impressive feat, and one conducted over the mobile radio to show it is possible in the real world for real users on real phones, instead of the optimised scenarios in a vendor’s lab. The inference from DT is that this is in aid of supporting super high quality video spamming the network (KT was talking about 8K mobile video streaming recently…) as well as “detail rich games” which is presumably going to be led by VR.

Of course 5G was mentioned, how could it not be, but the announcement was more about using this super-dooper new LTE service to drive the evolution of wireless towards the fifth gen instead of needless hyperbole and marketing hype. The name for the new service? LTE-Advanced Pro.

“As you can see, our network delivers. We are ahead of our time and ahead of the competition,” boasted Claudia Nemat, DT’s Board Member for Europe and Technology.

Meanwhile in other Huawei news, the Chinese megavendor has launched a software-defined security solution over at its Huawei Connect event. The solution is intended to be a guarantee of security for enterprise tenants’ applications hosted on cloud services. Adding a splash of NFV, Huawei said it virtualizes hardware security devices while automating deployment and delivering efficiency gains.

]]>http://telecoms.com/475481/dt-and-huawei-smash-5g-barrier-with-1-2-gbps-lte-demo/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/09/Speed-Mobile-Pace-Fast-5G.jpgYou used to be a leader, but not in the cloud era. Get used to it – Huaweihttp://telecoms.com/475194/you-used-to-be-a-leader-but-not-in-the-cloud-era-get-used-to-it-huawei/
http://telecoms.com/475194/you-used-to-be-a-leader-but-not-in-the-cloud-era-get-used-to-it-huawei/#commentsThu, 01 Sep 2016 03:19:52 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=475194Digital transformation is a loosely defined term which will nonetheless impact every business in one way or another, though some organizations will now drop down the pecking order, according to Huawei.

Speaking at Huawei Connect 2016, Rotating CEO Eric Xu said cloud computing will not only impact how a company operates fundamentally, but will also disrupt the hierarchy within individual subsectors. This may be more difficult for some to accept as they find themselves chasing industry innovators as opposed to setting the tone.

Cloud computing has been widely recognised as the great equalizer in industry. A company’s ability to compete is no longer based on the size of its bank account (to a degree), as scalable computing and the power of the internet have brought challenger brands to the masses. Companies like AirBnB who were non-existent 15 years ago are now widely admired and their abilities sought-after. This explosion of Cloud 1.0 companies (those born in the cloud) has redefined the definition of an industry leader.

According to Xu, this could be one of the stumbling blocks of a digital transformation journey, as decision makers in the more traditional organizations need to accept they are now the followers of the Cloud 1.0 companies and no longer the ones setting the pace. How an executive with a six figure salary in a Fortune 500 company accepts this may define how this organization adapts to the digital ecosystem. It could be quite a humbling experience and a difficult pill to swallow for some.

Aside from the reality check, the digital transformation journey holds numerous other challenges for the Cloud 2.0 companies, those who are growing with the cloud. First and foremost, application development will be a stumbling block for some. For Xu, this is primarily due to the resource which is invested into becoming a more agile company.

Huawei currently employs roughly 3,000 permanent developers and a further 7,000 contractors. No-one is saying every organization should employ 10,000 developers, but the numbers demonstrate the scale and importance of an agile application development team. Without this resource agility and subsequently digital transformation will not be achievable.

Another more significant area which needs to be addressed is that of the CIO. As with the traditional business model, the traditional CIO has now gone out of fashion, and unlike retro jeans in Dalston, it’s unlikely to come back. Xu has now redefined the CIO as a CI³O representing the expanded remit of the role.

As with its predecessor the CI³O takes into account the information capabilities of the business, but should now be responsible for innovation as well and interconnection of IT services between the enterprise and its customers, employees and partners. The CI³O has to be a businessman who can not only grasp the complicated nuances of the technology world, but also create a path which defines how the same technology will bolster the company in the real world. CI³O’s can no longer hide in the dark corners of the company, but need to be at the forefront of the boardroom, defining the future of the business.

Those CIO’s who are unable to grasp their new responsibilities and remain in the traditional mind frame will be the roadblock on the road to digital transformation. It could be the case the IT team is in fact holding back the company from the digital ecosystem simply because it is not ready to adapt.

Cloud computing is not a new topic, and neither is it a particularly revolutionary one anymore. Everyone understands the cloud what the cloud can offer, and now it’s time for the Cloud 2.0 organizations to grasp it. For more traditional organizations this means a long, hard look in the mirror to get to grips with their new position in the pecking order, as well as assessing whether the IT function is what is holding back the digital transformation journey.

]]>http://telecoms.com/475194/you-used-to-be-a-leader-but-not-in-the-cloud-era-get-used-to-it-huawei/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/09/Huawei-Connect-Bus.jpgIntroducing the Huawei talking elevatorhttp://telecoms.com/475142/introducing-the-huawei-talking-elevator/
http://telecoms.com/475142/introducing-the-huawei-talking-elevator/#commentsWed, 31 Aug 2016 14:00:49 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=475142One of the more common references to the potential of IoT is the talking fridge but Huawei has gone one step further with the connected elevator.

Speaking alongside its new elevator manufacturing partner Schindler at Huawei Connect 2016, Huawei’s Swift Liu introduced the world to the connected elevator. Built on an SDN driven architecture, the latest step in the drive towards IoT will allow manufacturers to proactively manage the maintenance and condition of lifts. Although it does not sound ground-breaking to start with, the announcement does demonstrate the long promise of IoT; anything that can be connected will be connected.

Aside from providing another anecdote for industry commentators to describe the internet of things, the connected lift does also demonstrate an important step in the progress of IoT; edge analytics. The Schindler and Huawei team claim to now have a proposition which is no-longer 100% reliant on the cloud for IoT to run effectively.

By processing the data on site and removing the process of transferring data to the cloud, time, money and storage space is saved. Not all data has to be transferred back to the cloud, only the mission critical data sets, though to date the technology has not caught up to allow information to be evaluated and actions taken on-site. Should the team be able to fulfil the claims on edge analytics, it is an important step to the realization of IoT.

The initiative does also answer another question which has been tenuously asked by numerous decision makers throughout the world; where’s the money? This is an example of proactive maintenance which also has an eye on the future. As the world’s population continues to grow, with trends placing more strain on the urban populations, the need to condense construction will become greater. Buildings will get taller, and the requirements for elevators to operate quickly, effectively and cheaply will also continue to grow.

It sounds menial but think back to the frustration experienced while waiting for a lift at 8.55am on a Monday morning. In London where buildings are of a ‘sensible’ size, this is not so much of a problem, but what about in Shanghai where dozens of 30-40 plus story buildings are dominating the sky-line. Malfunctioning lifts become much more of an issue when tens of thousands of employees are climbing a mountain of stairs each day. Schindler and Huawei are able to catch these malfunctions, and fix the problem before they become a serious issue. Like local government, if technology is working effectively, no-one will say anything.

Once again, it sounds menial, but that is the promise of IoT and technology on the whole. Incremental additions every day, which alone means nothing, but combined, creates a world which operates seamlessly (in theory). So the connected elevator isn’t that bad after all.

]]>http://telecoms.com/475142/introducing-the-huawei-talking-elevator/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/08/Huawei-Smart-Connection.jpgHuawei launches ‘Shape the Cloud’ strategy which all sounds very familiarhttp://telecoms.com/475146/huawei-launches-shape-the-cloud-strategy-which-all-sounds-very-familiar/
http://telecoms.com/475146/huawei-launches-shape-the-cloud-strategy-which-all-sounds-very-familiar/#commentsWed, 31 Aug 2016 10:42:07 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=475146During the inaugural Huawei Connect event this week, the Chinese tech giant launched its latest assault on the world of enterprise IT, but it is difficult to see what the difference is.

The ‘Shape the Cloud’ strategy was presented by Rotating CEO Ken Hu and represents Huawei’s efforts to move with the enterprise industry. Cloud computing as a concept has seemingly been around forever though we are only now getting to the stages where the cloud is penetrating the mainstream market in a meaningful manner. The ‘Shape the Cloud’ strategy represents this, though like cloud moving from the early adopter to mainstream markets, nothing much has changed except there’s a bigger pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

In all honesty, Hu or other executives at the top of the Huawei tree are not to blame. There have not been any significant breakthroughs in the cloud computing industry in the last twelve months, but all vendors need to be viewed as innovating. Hybrid cloud is now a major buzzword, as is Multi-cloud, though the concept of transforming a business built on legacy technology to cloud is the same.

Huawei now has more customers to chase after, and of course retained customers to sell to once again. Little was said during the briefing which would demonstrate Huawei are taking a new approach, but its sales people need a new catch. ‘Shape the Cloud’ is a digital transformation piece with a shiny new paint job, now targeted at the mass market as opposed to early adopters.

The new strategy is supporting the overall acceptance of cloud. Hu described the first era of cloud computing as Cloud 1.0. This is the stage where the majority of the industry is too nervous to undertake new concept. The early adopters were born into cloud computing and built business models on an assumption of cloud computing.

Where we are now is Cloud 2.0, the stage where companies grow into the cloud. This is where the mainstream market plays a role, and where fortunes can be made for the tech giants who have made a name for themselves. The Huawei team expects 100% of companies to be in the cloud by 2025, as well 85% of the total workloads. This will be a substantial jump from where we are now, though technology adoption does have a habit of accelerating.

“We’re going to see tens of thousands of industry clouds in Cloud 2.0,” said Hu during a media briefing. “Behind those thousands of clouds, is the journey which those companies have to take. These transformation journeys are taking place now and also on the horizon. In the past, when the industry only had a limited number of public clouds, the cloud business model available to enterprise organisations was limited. Now with the broad horizons of the cloud in the 2.0 era, the business models will become far more diversified. This is where we see the opportunity in Cloud 2.0.”

In short, “Huawei aims to become a driver and enabler of the intelligent world” as Hu announced during the briefing, and generally it would be agreed his company is in a good position to do so. That said, in Shanghai’s Mercedes Benz Arena, Huawei put forward its ‘new’ strategy to capture the cloud newbies in a very energetic manner. The differences between previous strategies built around digital transformation, and ‘Shape the Cloud’ are murky, but Huawei’s ambitions to be recognised as the undisputed number one in the cloud industry are very clear.

]]>http://telecoms.com/475146/huawei-launches-shape-the-cloud-strategy-which-all-sounds-very-familiar/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/08/Huawei-Connect.jpgElisa claims new 4G work record of 1.9 Gbpshttp://telecoms.com/475013/elisa-claims-new-4g-work-record-of-1-9-gbps/
http://telecoms.com/475013/elisa-claims-new-4g-work-record-of-1-9-gbps/#commentsTue, 23 Aug 2016 16:08:51 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=475013Elisa has claimed it has set a new world record in August as it achieved a speed of 1.9 Gbps in the 4G test network.

The company believes it is the first worldwide to achieve the landmark, and has done so using Huawei’s latest 4G technology. Various operators, including TDC, Proximus, Deutsche Telekom in Poland and Vodacom, have broken through the 1 Gbit/s barrier, though this would appear to be the fastest known to date.

“This new speed record is a step towards the 5G network and also an excellent indication of all the opportunities the 4G network still has to offer,” said Sami Komulainen, VP of Mobile Network Services at Elisa. “The speeds that the 4G network offers are continuously increasing and, possibly in the next few years, we will even be able to offer mobile data connections of several gigabits per second to our customers.

“A speed of almost two gigabits may seem unheard-of, and many people are wondering if such speeds are even needed in everyday use. However, there will be more and more demand for high-speed connections in the future as, for example, 360-degree videos and virtual reality applications become more popular.”

Currently, the maximum speed in Elisa’s network is 450 Mbps, and the fastest available mobile broadband subscription offers speeds of up to 300 Mbps. The company currently has 2.3 million consumer, corporate and public administration organisation customers, bringing in revenues of €1.57 billion over the course of 2015, employing just over 4,000 people.

]]>http://telecoms.com/475013/elisa-claims-new-4g-work-record-of-1-9-gbps/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/08/Race-horses.jpgHuawei makes strides to bridge digital divide in Africahttp://telecoms.com/474745/huawei-makes-strides-to-bridge-digital-divide-in-africa/
http://telecoms.com/474745/huawei-makes-strides-to-bridge-digital-divide-in-africa/#commentsThu, 11 Aug 2016 15:14:31 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=474745Huawei has released its annual ‘Connecting the Future’ report which outlines the company’s corporate sustainability programme over the last twelve months.

The report focuses on four areas which the company deem central to sustainability; global climate change, the digital divide, and security of telecommunications networks, as well as work in supporting the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

“Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is crucial for human progress in modern society, and connectivity-centred technologies are catalysing transformation in every industry,” said Kevin Tao, chairman of Huawei’s Corporate Sustainability Development (CSD) Committee. “In addition to boosting business efficiency and enriching people’s lives, ICT is transforming societies in ways that create economic opportunities, protect the environment, and make our world more sustainable.”

In terms of the digital divide, the company claim to have deployed more than 50% of the wireless base stations, over 70% of LTE networks, and at least 50,000 kilometres of optical fibre cable in Africa, as well as building 500 new bases stations in Sri Lanka. Although these are certainly credible achievements, pessimists within the industry will point out these are markets which present lucrative opportunities for the business.